Bransby & Friends’ Oz Trip 2025

It was a cold night without power and I woke up feeling terrible. What I thought was an allergy has become a full on head cold!! We packed up as it started to rain and headed off on our way to Stanley. Rach and Shaun and us went separate routes as we were planning to look at a car in Yollla but it didn’t eventuate.  The road was windy but a beautiful, albeit slow, drive.  We arrived in Strahan and set up in the recreation ground. It is right on the beach and for $15 a night with water available, you can’t go wrong,  We  went in to town to have a look around. Stanley would have to be one of the prettiest little towns I have ever seen. It is surrounded by water, and has beautiful, historic buildings all over town. The red phone box is where the first call to the mainland was made from. To top it off, Stanley has The Nut, a large, flat-topped, volcanic plug that rises 143 metres above sea level. We enjoyed a coffee at Marley’s cafe with a view of the ocean and then head...

We woke up today and the sun was shining!! We were blessed as Cradle Mountain has rain or snow 300 days of the year and you can’t even see the mountain. We walked down to the visitor centre to grab our tickets for the shuttle and off we went. We got off at Ronny Creek and started off on the Overland Track. Within a few metres of stepping on the boardwalk we spotted our first wombat! They are the cutest animals. We veered off to the left and took the Lake Lilla Track towards Dove Lake. The views were amazing. We had a quick stop to refresh and check out the information in the visitors centre before heading off on the 5 kilometre circuit of Dove Lake. It was absolutely beautiful. Eleven or so kilometres later we were a bit tired so we jumped on the shuttle and headed back to our vans.  After a quick rest we were raring to go and headed back to Peppers Lodge to do some more exploring. The first thing we see when we get there is another wombat. Pencil Pine Falls was first, only a short...

It was a slow start this morning, my head was hurting a little after indulging too much yesterday. It was a slow, windy drive into Cradle Mountain.  We stopped at Rosebery to have a Quick Look around and pop in the IGA. We made our way to Cradle Mountain and set up at the Discovery Park. It is a beautiful spot surrounded by bush and wildlife. We set up and had some lunch and then set off to explore. First up was the Enchanted Walk, an easy 1.4 kilometre loop through the mossy rainforest.  We continued on and did the King Billy Walk, a 1.9 kilometre circuit that takes you through the temperate rainforest to a giant King Billy Pine that is almost 1500 years old! Kind of makes you feel really insignificant. The walk was beautiful and we saw lots of pademelons which are in abundance here. It was ok retry cold so we took our dinner down to the awesome camp kitchen area. It had a big wood fire inside so was toasty warm, the perfect spot for us to eat, drink and play cards. On the wa...